January 8th, 2026
69,871 people evacuated from danger to date
27 people evacuated from danger this week
26 trips into deoccupied and frontline territories this week
Despite ongoing battles and attacks on Ukrainian cities, many of our volunteers took time to rest and connect with their families last week in observance of New Year’s (an important winter holiday throughout the countries of the former Soviet Union). However, as you can see below, they also delivered plenty of aid to those in need and held celebrations for children affected by the war.
Story
Liberation of Kup’yans’k
Contrary to Russia’s premature announcements about capturing the ruins of Kup’yans’k, the Ukrainian Armed Forces launched a counterattack that drove the Russians out of the city. This was welcome news at the end of a difficult and ruthless year.
Our Kharkiv-based volunteer, Darya has long been working with villages in the Kupy’ans’k direction. She had been worried about her ability to reach these villages, and suffered from an irrational but understandable sense of guilt for failing to convince the locals she was helping to leave the frontline zones. As soon as she learned that Kup’yans’k had been liberated, Darya undertook a two-day trip to the affected villages, bringing in as much humanitarian aid as possible to the surviving residents on the eve of the New Year’s holiday. After this trip, at 8:00 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, Darya was finally able to turn off her phone and get a good night’s sleep.
Team Summaries
Alina’s Team – Dobra sprava (Good Deeds)
7 trips, evacuating 27 people.
Inna’s Team – Krok z nadiyeyu (Step with Hope)
186 tons of firewood were delivered to Izium, Oskil, and Sloviansk in Ukraine-controlled Donbas.
7,850 people received help.
6,600 people received bread.
Aid was delivered to 35 locations, 12 of them in high-risk areas.
The Kherson team completed 9 humanitarian missions last week. Volunteers continued to support 29 families surviving in Kherson red zones and provided fuel for their generators.
Held holiday celebrations in Kramatorsk.
130 IDPs received secondhand clothes and kitchen at the Shevchenkove center.
Oleksandr D’s Volunteer Networks
Vladyslav K. (Mykolaiv): delivered 35 tons of drinking water to Mykolaiv.
Vitaliy Z. (Kharkiv): delivered 3 tons of humanitarian kits, clothes, medicine, and animal feed to Dmytrivka in the Kramatorsk District. Distributed almost 500 loaves of “Victory” bread in Verbivka, Izium District. Delivered a total of 67.5 tons of fuel briquettes to 225 households in the Balakliya territorial community. Visited an orphanage in the Savyntsi territorial community of the Izium District, bringing New Year’s gifts and sweets for the children.
Serhiy A. (Kharkiv): reporting for December, 2025. Distributed a total of 355 humanitarian aid sets to blind and visually impaired people in Kamianske, Marhanets’, Zaporizhzhia, Mukachevo, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, and Kramatorsk.
Oleksandr Z. (Lutsk): provided therapeutic interventions and aid to IDP children and families, children and adults with disabilities, orphans, elderly people, military service members and children from military families, and amputees in Lutsk, Ostrozhets' and other parts of the Rivne and Volyn regions. 1037 children and adults received help, including art therapy and a Christmas workshop, a trip to see a New Year’s performance, help with bread and other food, help with glasses, dental, medical, and preventive procedures, and help with the manufacture of prostheses and rehabilitation.
Darya’s Team
Delivered 362 packages to 9 villages near Kup’yans’k. These included Husynka, Samborivka, Kurochkyne, Kasyanivka, Kutkivka, Monachynivka, Stetskivka, and Mykolaivka.
Karina’s Team – My ryatuyemo Ukrayinu (We Save Ukraine)
104 people in the shelter.
Natasha’s Team – Volontersʹkyy tsentr Vyshnya (Cherry Volunteer Center)
Natasha and Tetiana are preparing for expeditions to Ukrainian-held Donbas and the Kherson Region, to take place over the coming week.
Timur’s Team – Komanda Teymura Alyeva (Timur Alyev’s Team)
Delivered aid packages to 280 people in Saltivka, Kharkiv.
Special deliveries to 14 elderly with disabilities and 11 families with babies.
Pavel and Olena’s Teams – Dotyk sertsya (Touch of Heart) & Svitanok mriy (Dawn of Dreams)
Team leadership prepared firewood deliveries for Mykolaiv and Kherson villages that are in progress this week.
Pomahaem Foundation (We Help Foundation)
313 people arrived at the Volos’ke shelter last week.
39 packages delivered to Marhanets’ near Nikopol’.
Most of the team took days off for the holiday, with most projects on short pause, other than the Volos’k'e shelter that continues to receive a stream of refugees daily.
Marina’s Team – Daruy dobro Ukrayina (Give Good Ukraine)
150 food and hygiene packages distributed to internally displaced people in Zhovti Vody.
Dina’s Team – Vilʹni lyudy, vilʹna krayina (Free People, Free Country)
Distributed 261 packages of aid in Kanev, Kremenchuk, and Poltava.
Served 1,150 meals in the soup kitchen in Kharkiv.
Bohdan’s Team — Vse robymo sami (We Do Everything Ourselves)
40 families in Zhytomyr received food and hygiene kits.
At the Club for Children with Disabilities, children attended art class, psychological relief games, and culinary classes where they made cakes.
300 children attended a Christmas holiday celebration, including a puppet show about Christmas, and received gifts.
Alena’s Team – Diva (Virgo)
347 people received bread in Odesa.
28 wounded in the hospital received help.
How to Help
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Fill out this form if you’re interested in volunteering with us, and we’ll let you know when opportunities come up.
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